Pope John Paul II proclaimed Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin the Roman Catholic Church's first indigenous American saint Wednesday and, in a colorful Mass blending Aztec and European traditions, challenged Mexico to end the racism and neglect that mire its Indian minority in poverty.

Salvador Suarez, a 37-year-old shoe salesman, traveled all night on a bus from his village in western Mexico and entered the Basilica of Guadalupe at 6 a.m. Wednesday--four hours before the religious experience of his lifetime. Suarez is a full-blooded Nahua Indian and devout Roman Catholic. This was the day his spiritual godfather, Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, would become the church's first indigenous American saint. The church makes saints of the dead to hold up as models for the living.

When the Vatican gave approval last year for Juan Diego Cuauhtlahtoatzin to become the Americas' first indigenous Roman Catholic saint, many of Mexico's 10 million Indians welcomed the honor as holy vindication of their struggle to overcome centuries of racism and gain recognition as first-class citizens. But when the church unveiled its official portrait of the 16th century Chichimeca Indian, racial pride turned to puzzlement and, for some, to anger.

Pope John Paul II opened the way Thursday for the canonization of 16th century shepherd Juan Diego as Mexico's first indigenous saint, despite a recent controversy in which a prominent clergyman challenged that he ever existed. Juan Diego's vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531 on a hillside in what is now Mexico City led to the construction of the nation's most important shrine, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and helped make the virgin this country's most beloved religious figure.

December 11, 1999 | JAMES F. SMITH and MARGARET RAMIREZ, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

From the pilgrims crawling on their knees toward the Basilica of Guadalupe here in the Mexican capital to the Latino Roman Catholic parishes of Southern California, an outcry has arisen over a claim that a beloved Indian peasant believed to have been visited by the Virgin Mary in 1531 may never have existed.

Red paper roses covered the front of the small wooden house on Pecan Street in East Los Angeles. Outside the picket fence a procession of 200 or more people stopped and waited in the dark street. The play began without announcements. The Virgin of Guadalupe appeared in her blue veil, and the native Indian Juan Diego wore a bath towel as a cloak (as played by seventh-graders from the Dolores Mission school).

Intentions are lofty in "Rosarium," the big new oratorio by Roger Bourland and William MacDuff that had its world premiere Saturday night at UCLA. The school supported the aspirations of its faculty members with the UCLA Chorale and Philharmonia Orchestra, the Angeles Chorale, soprano Juliana Gondek, tenor Gary Bachlund, baritone Peter Atherton, narrator Michael Piontek and conductor Donald Neuen, and an enthusiastically filled Royce Hall.

The brown-skinned Virgin of Guadalupe has long inspired Mexicans to make devout pilgrimages--on foot, by bicycle and even crawling on their knees for the last hundred yards--to the immense basilica that honors her image.

As she has every year on the day set aside to honor the patron saint of Mexico, Maria Hernandez awoke hours before dawn Saturday and embarked on a pilgrimage meant to demonstrate her faith and answer her prayers. Dressed in the traditional Indian garb of her native Mexico, Hernandez, 59, arrived before 3 a.m. on foot at her La Colonia neighborhood church, which by daybreak would overflow with more than 1,000 parishioners.

"La Virgen del Tepeyac" (The Virgin of Tepeyac) is not solely the dramatic adaptation of a religious story, it is also the carrying on of a tradition strongly rooted in Mexican culture concerning the apparition of the Virgin Mary at the Tepeyac hill in 1531. As presented by the Latino Theatre Company at St. Alphonsus in East Los Angeles, the mise en scene expands the confines of the stage to sections of the church's central hall.